A new MOBA enters the fray this week, and it’s from the studio that helped popularise the genre all those years ago in the first place. Will Heroes of the Storm leave a mark against the likes of DOTA 2 and League of Legends this week? Get ready to push lanes and talk games in this week’s Tuesday Game Room!

What have you been playing this week?

While I’ve not fallen into some deep, dark hole over it, I’m still playing Destiny again thanks to the House of Wolves expansion. A mixture of there not being any games I particularly want coming out recently, a lack of time, and the fact that I don’t actively hate it (as well as the myriad quality of life changes they made that make Destiny itself a less hellishly grindy and manipulative experience in the first place) have made it an easily enticing pick up and play experience again. It’s nice that I can log on, do a Prison of Elders run or a few rounds of PVP, feel like I’ve gotten some progress or reward out of it, and log back out. Turns out Destiny is a lot more fun casually than it ever was when I was spending hours and hours with it.

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Aside from that, most of my game time this last week has been thinking about games: more specifically, thinking about Splatoon, and wanting to buy a Wii U to play it. I’m a fair-weather Nintendo fan: I like them a lot, but I don’t go crazy for every new Mario or Zelda, and I get a lot of my Nintendo fix on handhelds, and have done so since the Gamecube days. But reading reactions to Splatoon, and being enticed by a shooter with actually interesting mechanics to it outside of “shoot that guy till he’s dead”, have made me start thinking that now that there’s a library of Wii U exclusives I’m intrigued by that I should at least consider picking one up soon.

New Releases!

Outside of the launch of Heroes of the Storm on PC this week, it’s quite a light affair. Massive Chalice also hits PC, as well as the Xbox One, and aside from that, there’s a handful of new titles for Playstation Platforms: The Escapists, Skulls of the Shogun, and Wander (also on PC) all hit PS4, while the PS3 gets Class of Heroes 2G, and the Vita gets Terraria and Tetris Ultimate.

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And now, the News

Once again it’s time for a few select picks from the last week of Gaming news, via Eurogamer:

XCOM 2 is real, but also only on PC - Good news, Commanders: XCOM is back, and this time your squads of soldiers named after close friends and family are going to die horrible deaths while fighting back against an Alien force that has occupied Earth for decades. But the real news is that the sequel is skipping consoles, unlike the former Enemy Unknown and its expansion, Enemy Within. I’m of two minds of this: I adored Enemy Unknown, but I was introduced to XCOM as a franchise solely by it being on console, so not having the sequel playable there stings. Taking a previously multiplatform franchise and making it exclusive (even a bunch of the old XCOM games got console ports) to one is a pretty crap move regardless though.

Lego announces Lego Worlds, which is Minecraft but Lego - In what has to be the most ouroboros-y move in gaming ever, Lego have unveiled Lego Worlds, which is basically Minecraft with Lego bricks... while Minecraft as basically Lego bricks without Lego bricks. It looks cool though, and if you want to try it out, it’s now available on Early access. Just try not to run Minecraft at the same time, I’m figuring that would cause some kind of dimensional tear in reality if they ever interact.

Could Driveclub’s PS+ Edition finally be happening? - Holy cow, the long saga of Driveclub PS+ may be over. Originally meant to launch when the PS4 launched 2 years ago, a stropped down, free version of the troubled racer has been in the works for ages now, even missing out on the launch of the actual game. But a new set of patch notes seems to imply that the free version of the game could actually launch soon — but does anyone care at this point?

New Nintendo Direct reveals Chibi Robo, Dr. Mario and Bravely Default sequels for the west - Nintendo held a surprise direct yesterday to confirm that several games announced at a recent Japanese direct were also coming westward. Sure, new Chibi Robo, Dr. Mario and a Sonic and Mario at the Olympic Games, but screw that: Bravely Default: End Layer, a sequel to the wonderful JRPG Bravely Default: Flying Fairy (LOOK AT THESE NAMES, HOW RIDICULOUS THEY ARE) was officially confirmed to land next year. Huzzah!

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We’ll be back this time next Tuesday for more gaming discussion, but for now, sound off in the comments with the games you’ve been playing, and what you’re looking forward to this week - and don’t forget to join the unofficial io9 community group on Steam!

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